8 Healthcare Technologies to Watch in 2020

By Steven Krohn · December 3, 2019

The medical industry has always had a bit of a contradictory relationship with technology. On the one hand, it has been fast and eager to adapt to healthcare technologies that can help treat patients — and understandably so.

But when it comes to technologies that make running a medical practice easier, or make the patient experience more streamlined and less stressful, it’s been slow on the uptake.

Luckily that seems to have been changing over the past few years and we now see the healthcare profession adopting healthcare technologies at a faster pace.

Here are the top 8 health technologies for healthcare industries to watch in 2020.

AI For Patient Care

In 2014, the AI for healthcare market was approximately $600million. In 2021, it’s expected to reach around $6.6billion.

Artificial Intelligence can help reduce human error, streamline processes, and stay up to date on patient care without increasing the workload on existing staff, or needing to hire additional staff.

There are three ways AI is commonly being used — or being developed to be used — in the healthcare profession:

Automate reminders, such as for appointments or to remind patients to take medications within specific timeframes.

Identify people at high risk and triggering medical staff alerts.

Deliver personalized dosage recommendations that take patient physiology and environment into account more precisely than typical doctor-driven recommendations can.

Blockchain For Data Security

Blockchain is mostly known for bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, but the technology itself has far wider-reaching applications than just alternate means of currency.

Data collected in a blockchain is both transparent and tamper-proof, the ultimate goal of sensitive record keeping. Information stored in blockchain is kept with the person who created it, rather than being stored on servers owned by third parties.

Imagine being able to have a Facebook account, without Facebook’s servers storing your personal data and being able to sell it on to other parties — that’s blockchain.

Of course this will pose challenges for healthcare marketers — and marketers in general — but there are ways being developed to circumvent these problems in a way that benefits both the business and the user.

Their data stays private, but the companies can still market to them.

Voice Search Optimization

We all know about search engine optimization, but there’s a new player in town — voice search. In 2018, 20% of Google searches were done with voice commands rather than written.

Optimizing your healthcare website to be easier to find and interact with through voice search features will help give you a competitive edge in the digital marketing space.

This is an up and coming part of healthcare technologies.

Chatbots – Healthcare Technologies

Chatbots are nothing new, but they are becoming more popular within the healthcare technologies space. They can be used to address basic patient enquiries, organize and improve patient pathways, medication management and even help in emergency situations.

While they’re a while away from being able to diagnose even mild conditions, this is exactly where the technology is heading. In the future, basic GP visits can be replaced by chatbot appointments, freeing doctors to tend to more serious concerns.

Virtual and Augmented Reality

VR healthcare technologies are growing at a rapid pace while more ways are being developed to make it as accessible as possible.

Augmented reality — whereby virtual assets are displayed interacting with the real world around you — is also developing quickly. They’re becoming particularly popular for exposure therapy treatment in patients with severe phobias.

Rather than start with a real spider, for example, an AR spider can be placed into a room with a patient with arachnophobia. This can help ease them through treatment and towards a speedier recovery.

Personalized Mobile Apps

A personalized mobile app for your healthcare business can increase engagement, improve the patient experience, and streamline the patient process for everyone involved.

Be sure to take advantage of healthcare technologies.

Uploading patient data, booking appointments, setting reminders, receiving test results — a personalized mobile app can make all of this many times more efficient than it currently is.

Patients will love the convenience provided by the app and be more likely to engage with your business than a competitor for the ease of use you’d provide.

Telehealth

Taking personalized mobile apps to the next level is Telehealth.

Connecting with doctors any time, any place is the dream for many patients. Rather than waiting in stuffy waiting rooms, scheduling days around limited appointment times and juggling appointments with other responsibilities, being able to have a GP visit with just your phone is the next big thing.

Telehealth is still in its infancy, but is quickly gaining traction and popularity. It cuts down on costs for both the clinic and the patient, is incredibly convenient, and gives both doctors and patients access to a wider base of people to interact with.

Video Marketing

Most web traffic is video-based these days — and that’s true for desktop and mobile engagement. Using video to market your healthcare organization is one of the best ways to ensure you’re getting your business in front of people in an engaging and informative way.

There are many platforms for video — be it Facebook, YouTube, or even dedicated apps like Snapchat and TikTok, each with hundreds of millions of users to connect with.

Leaving video out of your marketing plan is a surefire way of starting yourself off on the wrong foot.

Assuredly, this will harm your chances of competing in the digital marketing world.

As you can see, healthcare technologies are poised to skyrocket in 2020.